Can a hunter obtain a general elk licence to hunt this area as a Wyoming resident?

Yes. Wyoming residents buy a general elk licence over the counter with no draw and no preference points involved. A resident can purchase a general licence from mid-July onward for any general-licence hunt area, including hunt area 3.

How does a nonresident get a licence to hunt this area?

A nonresident must draw a Region E general licence, which is valid across the general-licence hunt areas of that region. The nonresident draw awards three quarters of licences to applicants with the most preference points (top-down by points) and a quarter to a random draw open to all applicants in the pool, regardless of points.

Can a hunter walk into enrolled private land to hunt, or does permission slip required?

Walk-in areas require no permission slip and can be entered during posted open periods. Hunter Management Areas—Chalk Hill and Broom Creek—do require a printed permission slip before hunting. A hunter should verify enrollment and access details before the season begins, since private land agreements are renegotiated annually.

Where is most of the accessible public land in this hunt area located?

Public land consists of scattered BLM, State Trust Land, and State Wildlife Areas totaling about 526 square miles, or roughly 10 percent of the hunt area. Access is limited and fragmented; roads, trailheads, and private inholdings restrict what a hunter can reach on foot.

What are the season dates for an any-elk hunt and an antlerless hunt here?

The general any-elk hunt runs from September 1 to November 30, with an archery window September 1–14 and a regular window September 15–November 30. The antlerless hunt runs December 1 to January 31. A cow-or-calf hunt under Type 8 is open August 1 to January 31.

Wyoming Hunt Area 3 (Rawhide) elk hunting

Licence

General licence area

Open public land

10%

Elevation

4,000–6,500 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Elk region

Hunt area 3 rolls from roughly 4,000 to 6,500 feet across 5,299 square miles of terrain averaging around 5,000 feet. The country is predominantly grassland and meadow, with pine forest and shrubland scattered through the Rawhide Hills and cottonwood along the creeks. Hay meadows occupy the drainage bottoms; irrigated and dryland crops lie in pockets. Slopes are gentle throughout—94 percent of the area is graded gentle, 6 percent moderate, and 1 percent steep—making most of the ground walkable on foot. The terrain does not naturally concentrate elk, and access is the real constraint here: 89 percent of the area is private land.

Public access consists of roughly 10 percent of the hunt area—about 526 square miles of BLM, State Trust Land, and State Wildlife Areas—but ownership does not guarantee entry. Roads, trailheads, seasonal closures, and private inholdings all limit what a hunter can actually reach. Six enrolled walk-in areas dot the landscape, and two private parcels—Chalk Hill and Broom Creek—are enrolled in the Hunter Management Area program. For any private ground in either program, a hunter should confirm access before applying for a licence; past seasons show that elk shift off the HMAs once hunting pressure arrives, and much of the best habitat lies on ground a nonresident hunter cannot simply walk onto.

This hunt area falls within a Chronic Wasting Disease endemic zone. Hunters should review current regulations on CWD handling and carcass transport before the season begins. Small game—cottontails and coyotes—are also available throughout the area under separate licensing.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 3 (Rawhide) is a general-licence hunt area, and how a hunter gets a licence for it depends on where they live.

A Wyoming resident buys a general elk licence over the counter — unlimited statewide, on sale from mid-July. No draw, no application, no preference points.
A nonresident cannot buy one. They must draw a Region general licence — for this hunt area, elk region E, which is valid across the general-licence hunt areas of that region and nowhere else.

Wyoming residents have no preference points for elk — the resident elk draw is random, and no resident point cutoff exists for any hunt area in the state. For nonresidents points matter a great deal: Wyoming awards 75% of each nonresident pool through the preference-point draw, top-down by points, and the remaining 25% at random. Nonresidents also choose between the Regular and Special pools — the same hunts at two price points, competing separately.

Seasons (2026)

Type Gen — general licence · Any elk
Archery September 1 – September 14Regular September 15 – November 30
Type Gen — general licence · Antlerless elk
Regular December 1 – January 31
Type 8 · Cow or calf
Regular August 1 – January 31

The wording of each hunt is the Wyoming Game & Fish Department’s and is legally exact — a “cow or calf” hunt is not a elk hunt in general, and a hunt limited to part of the area is not valid across it. Confirm every hunt in the current regulations before applying.

Hunting each season

Type Gen — Any elk (September–November)

Archery runs September 1–14 as bulls enter the rut and bugle eagerly, offering good opportunity for a caller, while regular season September 15–November 30 spans the peak rut through the post-rut recovery phase and into the migration transition, when bulls are in general circulation across the country. Early September brings warm days—highs around 79°F—cooling into November as highs drop to about 51°F and the first light snow totals around 1.5 inches accumulate. Access across both windows remains limited; the Broom Creek HMA is the best public option early season, but elk do not tend to stay there once hunting pressure arrives, driving hunters onto fragmented public land or private ground they have arranged access to beforehand. This hunt allows any elk and is open to general-licence holders—residents buying over the counter, nonresidents who draw a Region E general licence.

Type Gen — Antlerless elk (December–January)

The antlerless season from December 1 to January 31 targets cows and calves across the winter period, when short days and cold temperatures define the hunt. Highs average 42°F in December and January, with lows near 16°F and monthly snowfall of 3.2 inches in December and 1.7 inches in January, turning the landscape white and often concentrating elk on the lower grounds where access is heaviest. This hunt is valid only for antlerless elk on general licences—residents buying over the counter and nonresidents drawing a Region E general licence.

Type 8 — Cow or calf (August–January)

The cow-or-calf hunt runs August 1 through January 31, beginning in late summer when heat dominates—highs near 88°F in early August dropping to 54°F at night—and extending through the full rut, post-rut recovery, migration transition, and winter range phases. This long hunt is valid only for cow or calf and is restricted to private land enrolled in the Access Yes Program and the two Hunter Management Areas (Chalk Hill and Broom Creek); it is not valid on public land across the hunt area. Access is entirely contingent on prior arrangement with enrolled properties, making pre-season scouting and permission essential.

Land and access

private land89%

Private

State Trust Land8%

Generally open to public hunting

BLM1%

Generally open to public hunting

About 10% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — State Trust Land, BLM and State Wildlife Areas, roughly 526 square miles. Public ownership is not the same as easy entry: roads, trailheads, seasonal closures and private inholdings all still apply.

State trust land counts toward the open figure above. Wyoming extends hunting on legally accessiblestate trust land to the public unless a parcel is specifically closed — the catch is the access itself, since crossing private ground to reach it still needs the landowner’s permission. Camping, fires and off-road vehicles are not allowed on it.

This hunt area has 6 enrolled walk-in areas. It also holds 2 Hunter Management Areas. Both are private ground enrolled for public access, not public land. A Hunter Management Area requires a printed permission slip from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before hunting it. A Walk-In Area needs no permission slip — a hunter may walk in during the open period, subject to its posted rules. Enrollment is renegotiated every year, so check current status before counting on either.

Where elk are mapped

Yearlong Range26%

the only layer that means year-round use

Winter Range3%

used in winter

Each figure is the share of the hunt area that layer covers. It says where elk are mapped, not where inside the area they are, and not when they move.

Habitat and cover

Across the unit

Grass and meadow76%

Other cover19%

Sagebrush4%

Riparian1%

Shares are of each elevation band, not of the whole hunt area — they describe what grows up there, not how much of the area sits at that elevation.

Weather through the season

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Snowfall
January	42°F	16°F	1.7 in
February	44°F	17°F	3.5 in
March	54°F	24°F	1.7 in
April	61°F	31°F	1 in
May	70°F	41°F	0 in
June	82°F	50°F	0 in
July	89°F	56°F	0 in
August	88°F	54°F	0 in
September	79°F	44°F	0 in
October	64°F	32°F	0.9 in
November	51°F	23°F	1.5 in
December	42°F	16°F	3.2 in

Snowfall is the monthly total, not depth lying on the ground.

Common questions

Can a hunter obtain a general elk licence to hunt this area as a Wyoming resident?: Yes. Wyoming residents buy a general elk licence over the counter with no draw and no preference points involved. A resident can purchase a general licence from mid-July onward for any general-licence hunt area, including hunt area 3.
How does a nonresident get a licence to hunt this area?: A nonresident must draw a Region E general licence, which is valid across the general-licence hunt areas of that region. The nonresident draw awards three quarters of licences to applicants with the most preference points (top-down by points) and a quarter to a random draw open to all applicants in the pool, regardless of points.
Can a hunter walk into enrolled private land to hunt, or does permission slip required?: Walk-in areas require no permission slip and can be entered during posted open periods. Hunter Management Areas—Chalk Hill and Broom Creek—do require a printed permission slip before hunting. A hunter should verify enrollment and access details before the season begins, since private land agreements are renegotiated annually.
Where is most of the accessible public land in this hunt area located?: Public land consists of scattered BLM, State Trust Land, and State Wildlife Areas totaling about 526 square miles, or roughly 10 percent of the hunt area. Access is limited and fragmented; roads, trailheads, and private inholdings restrict what a hunter can reach on foot.
What are the season dates for an any-elk hunt and an antlerless hunt here?: The general any-elk hunt runs from September 1 to November 30, with an archery window September 1–14 and a regular window September 15–November 30. The antlerless hunt runs December 1 to January 31. A cow-or-calf hunt under Type 8 is open August 1 to January 31.

Sources

Wyoming Game & Fish — Hunting & Trapping — licence types, general and limited-quota hunts, and season structure
WGFD Hunt Planner — hunt-area boundaries, season dates and the unit descriptions
WGFD — Draw results and odds — how the resident random draw and the nonresident preference-point draw work
WGFD — Regulations — the legal limitations on each hunt, and the statewide licence rules
USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2021) and 3DEP elevation — land cover and terrain by elevation band

Seasons, licence types and boundaries change. Confirm every detail with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before applying or hunting.

All Wyoming elk hunt areas